this weeks readings had to deal with the idea of online identity. the quote that Nakamura gives in the beginning of her article " ON the internet nobody knows you're a dog" sums up the weeks readings in its entirety.
The article by Steve silberman illustrated the"happy go lucky" aspect of the internet. For John 0, a gay teen, it gave him an escape for the world around him to a place where people didn't judge him because he was different. I feel luike this is one of the reasons the internet was created- to give people a place to relate to each other regardless of their physical location.
the next article about women and children i believe was a rebuttle to the article about a rape in cyberspace. I basically stated that the internet is not the "Wild wild west"- a place that needs to be tamed so that women an children can use it because it would take away from the internet's "personality". To an extent i agree with the author, IF you stumble across something that you don't particularly want to encounter, you can leave the site or shut of your computer. granted it might scar your sight for a bit, but its not going to scar you physically or emotionally.Also, trying to make something safer just because " innocents" are using it, i feel is point less. IF they're are going looking for something someone doesnt want them to see, how innocent are they really. However i feel like if people are being harassed or raped on line there should be something to prevent this from happening. Becauase rape is about power this is an easy way to obtain power over someone else.
Because the internet has no really way of knowing what we look like or who we are, unless we choose to put it out there it is very easy to embark on identity tourisim. You can be black, white, purple, maroon or stars and have a paper clips for hair. MUDS and MOOS that allow for this type of creativity give people the chance to express themselves in a way the maybe wouldn't otherwise. But what point does this go to far. And are rl steriotypes perpetuated online because of people picking and choosing what they want to be. this happnds because most of the knowledge people have about other races is the sterieotypes that they have been given.
Overall i feel like the identity tourisim that goes on online doesnt realy hurt anybody. as long as people don't let these thins start affecting them in real life. then a little online role playing never hurt anybody.